Banshee – Season 1, Episode 3: “Meet the New Boss”

* For a review of the previous episode, “The Rave” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Half Deaf Is Better Than All Dead” – click here This episode begins with Carrie (Ivana Milicevic) doing some ninja-style sneaking. She gets in to see Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross). The first he’s seen of her in many years, since Hood (Antony Starr) went away and they took off with his diamonds. Now we discover the truth: she is his daughter, as we can tell by his talk with her about being scared of thunder, walks in Coney Island. She confirms it, too. Little Ana Rabbit. So the big soup gets murkier by the episode, more complex than the last. Their relationship is clearly fractured after her betrayal. Except she’s brought back his diamonds. She wants him out of her new existence for good, to bet let go of her debt. And she gives up Hood to get that done. A terrifying coldness. Ouch.

At the casino in Banshee arrives Ultimate Fighting ass kicker Damien Sanchez (Cedric Stewart). With Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) as the face of the operation, Benjamin Longshadow (Russell Means) is happy to have things going smoothly. Only his son Alex (Anthony Ruivivar) doesn’t feel too similar on that side of things. But for now, they’ve got a big fighting event for their casino that Kai’s facilitated, and that’s getting things done. Kai greases the wheels with Sanchez by providing him with a naked white woman in his trailer, a bag full of cash. Life’s sweet for Sanchez.
In the meantime, Hood has bad flashbacks to his time in jail. A massive Albino (Joseph Gatt) haunts his memories, having brutalized him violently. We’ll surely see more o this come out, which is interesting. It’ll give us insight into the toughness of Hood.
Many are reeling from the death of young Reed at the rave. The Senator and his family are clearly devastated. This is now where we see the aspect of Hood’s lawful identity come more into play. He is expected to get things done, to find the people responsible, to make things right. He can’t just play by his own agenda, there’s a job behind that badge.
An interesting development: Gordon (Rus Blackwell) invites Hood over for burgers and beers at the Hopewell residence. Wow. Seeing him and Carrie in such close quarters, Gordon there, the kids, it’s exciting in an odd, almost voyeuristic way. We learn more of Carrie’s family, as well. Her son has bad lungs, needing a machine to help him breath often. So there’s an incredible root of emotion for Carrie here. It isn’t simply some cover story, a place to hide out. She loves them, they are her life now. Tough what she did to Hood, but she can’t simply abandon her family now, can she?
Hood tangles with Rebecca Bowman (Lili Simmons) again, even if it may prove to be bad for his health. At the same time, Sugar (Frankie Faison) calls up Uncle Kai to come get his niece. Another interesting relationship. She’s clearly shucking off the responsibilities of the Amish community, all those expectations. He did so long ago. Though, he recognizes what it has cost him. He can no longer see his mother, which obviously breaks him.Kai: “You can‘t begin to understand how alone I am. I‘ve lost count of the people I hurt, and still I hurt people everyday. You have no idea what that does to you inside. It‘s like a blade in your belly that‘s gradually scraped you raw.” Sanchez does a training spar session at the casino. Simultaneously, Hood susses out information from Proctor, who in turn gets his back up after a few questions from the new Sheriff. The talk of drugs makes him nervous.
Further than that, Sanchez comes across as a real piece of work. He hits his sparring partner a little too hard. He even dares Hood to step up. Then he gets another lady set up to head for his room later. Only this time things go differently than with the first girl Proctor had sent in.
Bigger things are happening with Hood. He gets a visit from Carrie. She brings him the diamonds that were supposedly previously stolen. She offers them for him to get lost and leave Banshee. But now he doesn’t want to leave. He’d rather stick around awhile.
Things get rough over with Sanchez and his lady friend. He makes her take cocaine by putting on his fingers and sticking them inside her, then gets violent. Very violent.
At the station, Hood and Deputy Siobhan Kelly (Trieste Kelly Dunn) do a little more chatting. She discovers he’s fairly impenetrable. For now, anyways. She and Hood get called off then to deal with the victim of Sanchez and his disgusting machismo.
It’s clear Hood cares about the girl. He doesn’t like what Sanchez has done. However, when he seems about ready to let Proctor have his way for the moment, Siobhan comments that famous line from The Who: “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” And this, plus Sanchez’s sleazy manager, sets Hood off, ready to prove exactly who the new fucking boss is in Banshee.
An impromptu fight between Sheriff Hood and Sanchez begins. Of course, the champ sees it as a joke. But those memories of that big Albino beating him in jail propels Hood into a state of manic rage, a numb state of violence, and he brings the brutality just as hard as Sanchez. They have a great, nasty little rumble. Sanchez ends up getting what he deserves, even though Hood takes a nice dose of ass whooping himself. Needless to say, the champ won’t be fighting or fucking or raping any time soon.

Hood (to Siobhan): “Meet the new boss” The new boss Hood does not sit well with Proctor. He is highly offended by the Sheriff’s actions, costing him plenty. But a guy like Hood’s not afraid of somebody like Proctor. It’ll be interesting to watch their relationship progress, to see how Hood uses the law against Proctor and also juggles his own secret life, the life he left behind, the thievery. So a criminal hiding as a lawman against a criminal pretending to be a businessman becomes something volatile, exciting, fun, dangerous.Kai: “I‘ve lived here my entire life. I am this town. I helped build it and I bled for it. You ever loved anything like that?”Hood: “I have”
Proctor also expects to get his money back for the fight. So Clay Burton (Matthew Rauch) goes to get it. Manager Doug (Mike Pniewski) takes the brunt of that encounter. And this is the first real clear indication of a maniac inside Clay, as he goes about the business of getting the money with psychotic precision.
But the worst is yet to come – a video of Hood fighting Sanchez is about to be uploaded to the internet by a security guard who witnessed the entire thing. That could mean some quite sticky trouble for Hood. Next episode is titled “Half Deaf Is Better Than All Dead” and continues the series in fine fashion. This particular episode is one of my favourites because we see the honour among thieves depicted in perfect representation by Hood.

An Update from Father Gore

Seek & Ye Shall Find

Father Gore is first and foremost a passionate lover of film— especially horror. He's also a Master's student at Memorial University of Newfoundland with a concentration in postmodern critical theory, currently writing a thesis which will be his debut novel of literary fiction, titled Silence. He also used to write for Film Inquiry frequently during 2016-17 and is currently contributing to Scriptophobic in a column called Serial Killer Celluloid focusing on film adaptations about real life murderers. As of September 2018, Father Gore is an official member of the Online Film Critics Society.